Raghavendra Kamath, Dev Chatterjee

Stories by Raghavendra Kamath, Dev Chatterjee

Future Retail independent directors drag Amazon to CCI

Future Retail independent directors drag Amazon to CCI

Rediff.com   8 Nov 2021

Amazon violated FDI norms, allege Future Retail independent directors.

Dish TV vs Yes Bank: Another corporate battle looms

Dish TV vs Yes Bank: Another corporate battle looms

Rediff.com   18 Oct 2021

Even as the corporate battle over Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has reached the Bombay high court, another Essel Group firm - Dish TV India - is gearing up for a legal battle with YES Bank by planning to move the National Company Law Tribunal to appoint six of its nominees on the board of the loss-making company. While Dish TV said YES Bank has acquired 26 per cent stake by invoking the pledged shares of Essel Group promoter, it also said YES Bank must make an open offer to shareholders of the company, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) takeover code. This, as YES Bank is seeking to take control of the company, said Dish TV.

SBI ready to support Tata group's bid for Air India

SBI ready to support Tata group's bid for Air India

Rediff.com   28 Sep 2021

India's largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) will support Tata group's bid for soon-to-be-privatised Air India by subscribing to Tata Sons debentures or funding the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Tata Sons for the acquisition. Bankers said the credit rating of Tata group's holding company is "AAA" signifying high safety and a combination of Air India with its existing airline businesses would make it a formidable player - leading to a duopoly market with IndiGo. It would also open many business opportunities, including in the retail segment, an official said.

Shareholders vote down Birla nominees to board of directors

Shareholders vote down Birla nominees to board of directors

Rediff.com   25 Sep 2021

Vindhya Telelinks, Universal Cables and Birla Cable shareholders go against family's wishes.

Real estate: Godrej, Prestige vie for Rs 10K-cr sales booking club

Real estate: Godrej, Prestige vie for Rs 10K-cr sales booking club

Rediff.com   9 Sep 2021

The real estate sector might have been caught off guard by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, but large listed developers like Godrej Properties and Prestige Estates Projects soldier on undeterred. They aim to have sales bookings of Rs 10,000 crore in the next few years.

Top realtors in race to enter one of world's priciest markets

Top realtors in race to enter one of world's priciest markets

Rediff.com   30 Aug 2021

Some of the country's largest listed real estate developers - DLF, Prestige Estates, and Puravankara - are foraying into the Rs 50,000-crore residential property market of Mumbai, where home prices are among the highest in the world. All of them are set to launch residential projects in the financial capital of the country, where the market is dominated by players such as Runwal, Lodha, and Oberoi Realty, among others. Leading the race is Prestige, which has lined up 6 million square feet (msf) of new launches in the city across Mulund and Byculla in the third quarter of this financial year (2021-22).

Why Piyush Goyal is peeved at some in India Inc

Why Piyush Goyal is peeved at some in India Inc

Rediff.com   23 Aug 2021

Union Minister of Commerce and Textiles Piyush Goyal has stirred up a hornet's nest by taking on India Inc, specifically the Tata group, which is among the companies that lobbied against the Modi government's pro-consumer draft e-commerce policies. While Goyal's comments, made at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event, were streamed live on YouTube, the industry lobbying body later edited the video and subsequently withdrew the entire speech. Goyal had said the Tata group and other Indian companies often lobbied for their interest, while ignoring national interest.

How top realtors plan to transform Central Mumbai

How top realtors plan to transform Central Mumbai

Rediff.com   22 Aug 2021

One of Mumbai's biggest real estate redevelopment projects of Bombay Development Directorate's (BDD's) chawls (large buildings divided into many separate tenements, offering cheap, basic accommodation) has taken off in Central Mumbai, opening up a Rs 20,000-crore opportunity for real estate companies. It is expected to drive down real estate prices in Central Mumbai by up to 25 per cent, forecast real estate experts. Spread over 92 acres in Central Mumbai's prime localities of Worli, Lower Parel, and Dadar and consisting 195 four-storey houses, the BDD chawls were constructed in the 1920s.

D-Mart owner Radhakishan Damani enters top 100 global billionaires' club

D-Mart owner Radhakishan Damani enters top 100 global billionaires' club

Rediff.com   19 Aug 2021

Radhakishan S Damani, investor and promoter of the D-Mart supermarket chain, has broken into the elite club of the top 100 global billionaires. Damani, who grew up in a single-room apartment in Mumbai, is now ranked 98th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with $19.2 billion as his net worth. The index is a daily ranking of the world's richest people. The other Indians on the top 100 rich list ahead of Damani are Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, and Lakshmi Mittal.

Top Mumbai realtors turn to redeveloping properties

Top Mumbai realtors turn to redeveloping properties

Rediff.com   16 Aug 2021

Leading property developers, such as Oberoi Realty, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, and Hiranandani, have turned to redevelopment of existing buildings in the expensive parts of Mumbai as a way of augmenting revenue. Experts estimate that Mumbai's redevelopment projects could be worth Rs 30,000 crore. As such, they are not new. What is new is that the big developers are interested in them. Leading the race is Oberoi Realty, which has set up a separate team for these projects.

Tata group keen to enter chip manufacturing: Chandrasekaran

Tata group keen to enter chip manufacturing: Chandrasekaran

Rediff.com   10 Aug 2021

The Tata group is looking to make a foray into semiconductor (also known as chips) manufacturing and it has set up a business to seize the opportunity, Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Monday. "At the Tata group, we have already pivoted into a number of new businesses like electronics manufacturing, 5G network equipment as well as semiconductors, in all probability," he said while speaking at the annual general meeting of the IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Chandrasekaran said global supply chains, currently heavily dependent on China, would see a big change in a post-pandemic world with businesses shifting their reliance to other countries.

Future's poor FY21 results could spell trouble for Biyani

Future's poor FY21 results could spell trouble for Biyani

Rediff.com   7 Aug 2021

For the fiscal ended 2021, the group has made a loss of Rs 5,943 crore on sales of Rs 11,723 crore, a drop of 66 per cent over fiscal 2020. The group's total debt was up by 7 per cent to Rs 20,742 crore.

Mumbai all set for its BIGGEST infra transformation

Mumbai all set for its BIGGEST infra transformation

Rediff.com   5 Aug 2021

Mumbai, India's financial capital, is set for a mega transformation with a massive patch of land opening up for redevelopment; a new metro railway ready to start services by the year-end; and the country's oldest railway station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, going for modernisation with private sector participation. Work on Mumbai's second airport will start from next month, while construction of the sea link connecting central Mumbai to Navi Mumbai has already moved into a fast lane despite Covid-induced lockdowns. Also, a coastal road project, connecting Nariman Point to Worli, is under way and will help decongest the city to quite an extent. Of all these mega infrastructure projects, the one that has a huge potential to change the city's skyline is the Eastern Waterfront project - to be built on the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land.

Zee founder Subhash Chandra settles 91.2% of debt with 43 lenders

Zee founder Subhash Chandra settles 91.2% of debt with 43 lenders

Rediff.com   4 Aug 2021

The Essel group founder, Subhash Chandra has settled 91.2 per cent of his debt with 43 lenders, and the remaining dues are in the process of being paid. "I am happy to report that we have come out of the financial stress situation by settling 91.2% of our total debt to 43 lenders in 110 accounts. "About 88.3% of the amount has been paid, while the remaining 2.9% is in the process of being paid. "We are making all the required efforts to settle the remaining 8.8% of our total debt.

Maharashtra RERA blacklists 644 residential projects

Maharashtra RERA blacklists 644 residential projects

Rediff.com   1 Aug 2021

MahaRERA, the authority under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, in Maharashtra, has blacklisted 644 housing projects in the state for not meeting project deadlines. The authority has prohibited them from being sold, advertised or marketed in the state. These projects were supposed to be completed and handed over to homebuyers in 2017 and 2018. Even though most of the projects are being developed by local developers, one big name on the list is Lavasa Corporation promoted by HCC whose registration expired in 2017.

Dubai tycoon slaps $8 bn suit on BoB, EY in New York for ignoring 'fraud'

Dubai tycoon slaps $8 bn suit on BoB, EY in New York for ignoring 'fraud'

Rediff.com   30 Jul 2021

Dubai-based billionaire BR Shetty has sued Bank of Baroda (BoB) and audit firm Ernst & Young (EY) in a New York court, accusing them of ignoring fictitious and fraudulent transactions that resulted in NMC Healthcare going bankrupt. Shetty is seeking $8 billion in damages in the suit that also names the top management of NMC Healthcare, and Netherlands-based Credit Europe Bank. A top NMC Healthcare official confirmed the development to Business Standard and said despite several meetings, senior BoB officials in India did not take remedial steps for fear of getting involved in an international ponzi scheme perpetrated by then senior management officials.

Biocon chief: Sebi's insider trading laws need an overhaul

Biocon chief: Sebi's insider trading laws need an overhaul

Rediff.com   26 Jul 2021

When Biocon chairperson Kiran Majumdar-Shaw - well known for raising issues ranging from lack of civic services in Bengaluru to climate change - decided to take on the Indian stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), she forced the Indian corporate world and legal community to take notice. In an interview to Business Standard, Majumdar-Shaw called a Sebi order to impose a fine on insider trading charges against a Biocon employee and an external consultant an "Agatha Christie" fiction, which destroyed the reputation of "innocent people". "The order is pure harassment and has caused huge reputational damage to us and goes against the principles of good governance promised by this government," Mazumdar-Shaw said. "We will certainly appeal this," she added.

Tata, Reliance ready for mother of all battles

Tata, Reliance ready for mother of all battles

Rediff.com   20 Jul 2021

'The competition between the two is definitely going to be of great interest to the Indian market.'

Kirloskars latest business family to feud over settlement

Kirloskars latest business family to feud over settlement

Rediff.com   17 Jul 2021

Sanjay Kirloskar, promoter of Kirloskar Brothers, moves Supreme Court to enforce a family settlement signed in 2009.

How house designs are changing post Covid

How house designs are changing post Covid

Rediff.com   11 Jul 2021

Realty - Sunday